volcano boarding down Cerro Negro, a 50 year old volcano!
León is one of the biggest cities in Nicaragua outside the capitol, Managua, and most backpackers add this to their list because of the incredible volcanoes surrounding the city. Most notably, Cerro Negro is a relatively new volcano that a couple companies have created a "volcano boarding" opportunity which lets you slide down at speeds up to 100 km/ hour!
After leaving Popoyo on the southern coast of Nicaragua at 5 AM, it was a full day of travel and luckily a kind friend gave us a lift half the way, then we finished off the journey with a taxi for $20 per person all the way to Leon in the more northern part of the country. Depending on where and how you wanna travel around the country, it's surprisingly expensive to get around. While I'm used to going huge distances in Peru or Mexico for under $10 on charter buses, Central America is more fond of the local bus "chicken bus," some chaotic minibuses, or ultimately just direct shuttles between tourist destinations if you wanna skip the hassle. For example, my journey between Leon and Granada, which would normally be 2 hours driving directly, actually ended up being about 4 hours with a necessary transfer in the middle. A direct shuttle would have cost me $20, but my journey still cost me about $9 considering all the taxis, mini buses, and extra charge for my surfboard. So half the cost, double the time, you can decide whichever way you wanna swing it!
Anyways I digress. I decided to stay at Bigfoot Hostel per a few people's recommendation, and man it was pretty fun but definitely the main party hostel! I liked it because they had a huge locker to store your bag before/after check in, and a little pool and ultimately your stay was free for one night if you volcano boarded with them! But that doesn't mean too much, since otherwise the hostel is only $6 a night.. If you want to pay a few more dollars and have a slightly nicer experience, I've heard great things about Poco a Poco hostel, and Via Via across the street seemed chill as well.
I got to Leon about 11 AM, took a hot lap around the city center and already saw most the highlights in my hour of adventuring. The city is famous for the revolution which happened in the 1960s and 1970s and has left this city teeming in colorful murals and resilience. (Unfortunately, Nicaragua is back in a bad presidency once again which is leaving many citizens fleeing or feeling hopeless. Regardless, it's inspiring to see what the Nicaraguan people accomplished once in the past, and can hopefully do again...)
In my first little hour, I bought some cheap sandals since I lost mine ( so cheap I managed to break just two days later), walked around the indoor market, walked past the beautiful white cathedral, and saw the main center plaza. Perhaps my favorite part was going to McDonald's and checking out the national menu-- McPatatas and McNifica were some cool ones!
About 12:45 PM I ventured back to my hostel and got inspired to fit in the 1PM departure for volcano boarding, so that's exactly what I did! The tour cost $35 but included the transport, dinner, snacks, and lots of drinks at the end. It was quite the adventure, starting with 25 20-something year olds hopping into a bus and taking a 90 minute ride to the volcano in the heat.
The base of the volcano was pretty freaking hot and the volcano boards weren't the lightest thing to carry but I heard some people treating it like a surfboard and then carrying it felt like a breeze hahaha (it was still much heavier than a shortboard, but you get the idea). They said it was 45 steep minutes to the top but I think it was more like 30 minutes total, much easier than I anticipated at first glance. We started walking up at 3:30 PM and thank goodness because the afternoon rains are coming everyday in the rainy season!
By the time the goggles were on, the orange jumpsuit and bandana and board was ready, I begged to be the first person to go because I was pretty scared! The volcano edge is so steep you can't see the bottom, so I asked for the boarding technique to go as slow as possible and still felt really fast to me haha. I leaned forward and dug my heels into the black sand as hard as possible but still felt like I was slipping, slipping, and picking up lots of momentum as the hill got steeper. It took me maybe 2 minutes to get down but I'm nearly positive some people in my group bombed it in 30 seconds-- you do you! Remember how I said I went first? The folks who waited till the end got rained on with a torrential downpour that started instantaneously!
Normally this party-version of volcano boarding would have drinking and sunset bonfire at the base of the volcano afterward, but the rain made us have that party on the tight bus! It was pretty fun and we were all in our soaking orange jumpsuits, but we got some nice reggaeton going and party bused all the way back to Leon before collectively making a McDonalds run (my second of the day...)
I went to bed early that night while the rest of my party hostel went out on just a typical Tuesday... and then I woke up ridiculously early the next day because I'm still on my surfing 5AM sunrise schedule. I found a lovely little cafe open at 7AM to catch breakfast (I think my hostel didn't have a kitchen?), then met up with some friends at the 9AM walking tour the next day. This was one of my favorite walking tours ever, with a Nicaraguan guide speaking absolutely perfect English and we got to spend the majority of the tour trying food! He had everyone pitch in just 10 cordoba (30 cents!) but this was enough to try like 15 different local fruits and eats in the market.
Overall the walking tour covered basically everywhere I had gone on my little hot lap the day prior, which made me think it was an alright time to leave Leon instead of staying another night. I figured out on a whim where I was gonna go, and decided it was time for a bit more surfing. There's an awesome beach town with surf just 30 minutes outside the city, and the ocean was calling (for one thing, nothing cures the mosquito itch better than saltwater, in my opinion).
Big disclaimer-- I wasn't really free during the opening times of the white cathedral and never made it to the roof. Some people might think that's kinda messed up because that's like the best thing to do in this city, but hey I will just have to be baaack!
I took a 30 minute shuttle for $5 to Las Peñitas because I was lazy, but in theory I could have done it for 10% of the cost on the chicken bus! Here you'll find what feels like the quaintest but most abandoned little beach town. Just one long road that goes along the coast, you definitely want to situate yourself at Mano a Mano hostel which seems to be the most happening place in town. This was probably my favorite hostel I’ve ever stayed in. I will let the photos do the talking, but for just $10 a night, in front of the best surf break, with really fabulous fans and mosquito nets, high ceilings, guitar yoga mats etc etc, I think this was the best bang for my buck in Central America. The people staying in the hostel matched the vibe—- really chilled surfers from all over, and then a pretty large gang of local surfer boys that seemed to be either working there or nearby. In front of the hostel seemed to be the sunset gathering place as well, with everyone gathering to play volleyball or catch an evening session.
As for the waves? I arrived on a swell and actually it was more or less too big for me! Although enjoy the BEAUTIFUL pictures of these glassy waves making the Pacific look like a wave pool ..:While I tried and tried and duck dived and paddled for about 5 attempted sessions in my two days in town, I would get really spooked once I actually reached the line up and set waves, so I wouldn’t last long. The few waves I caught were fun and fast walls forming on the inside at high tide. Las Peñitas surf is pretty empty so I was often the only one in the water, and obviously that made it even harder to send it because it’s really not safe to surf alone, let alone in waves of 1.5-2 meters. I woke up one morning and saw this and couldn’t resist, so I waited and no other surfers show up so I just went out alone haha. I really wish I could have surfed it on a smaller day, but I quickly left after 2 nights because a tropical storm was hitting all of Nicaragua and I did not want to be on the beach in hurricane like conditions :(
The hostel also had free bikes and kayaks which you could take into the nearby mangrove forest (I’m sure I would’ve taken advantage if, again, the waves weren’t so high). I used the bike to explore the pueblo from either side and can’t say there was so much happening. There are lots of homes and establishments but it mostly feels eerily empty with the occasional tienda or comedor thrown into the main strip. Regardless, it’s a very pretty place and if you’re not arriving with a board it seemed there were a few places you could get lessons and rent boards!
This is definitely the perfect trip to pair with a few busy city days in León, as in Las Peñitas you just have surf, beach, some good people, and the simple life. When it was time for me to head out and dodge the storm, I hopped on a 30 minute chicken bus to León for super cheap and continued onto the colonial city of Granada….
